More than 1,000 Ohio doctors, including doctors who perform abortions and sex changes, signed a letter going against a major state medical association after its political arm endorsed Republican Vivek Ramaswamy for governor last week instead of Democrat Amy Acton.
Less than two months ahead of an election with polling showing candidates neck and neck, the Ohio State Medical Association Political Action Committee (OSMAPAC) notably chose to endorse Ramaswamy over Acton, a medical doctor who has spent much of her career in public health and education. After the endorsement, an effort called Doctors for Dr. Amy Acton — backed by the same doctor who spearheaded the successful 2023 effort to codify abortion in the Ohio Constitution — collected more than 1,000 signatures from current, former, and future members of the Ohio State Medical Association (OSMA) for a letter endorsing Acton and calling OSMA’s Ramaswamy endorsement a “betrayal.”
“We didn’t enter medicine to play interest-group politics or protect institutional influence. We entered it to save lives, care for those who need us, and stand up for our patients,” the letter reads in part. “An organization that purports to represent us has endorsed a candidate that directly threatens Ohio’s health. We will not stay quiet about that betrayal. This is our profession speaking for itself. We endorse Dr. Amy Acton for governor of Ohio.”
The letter includes a long list of concerns and grievances Doctors for Dr. Amy Acton has about Ramaswamy, including his approach to Medicaid, his views on COVID-era policies, and his opposition to the measure creating a right to abortion in the Ohio constitution.
“OSMAPAC says Ramaswamy earned his endorsement on reducing administrative burdens, preserving tort reform, addressing rural healthcare access, and strengthening the physician training pipeline. But an organization representing doctors should judge how a candidate’s choices have and will impact our patients’ actual lives. When a medical organization backs a candidate who threatens the very foundation of patient care, it betrays the core duty of our profession,” the letter asserts.
“Standing against this platform is Dr. Amy Acton, a physician trained in pediatrics and preventive medicine, and the former Ohio Director of Health who helped guide our state through the initial crisis of COVID-19 under a Republican administration. As Health Director, she worked across party lines to hold drug companies accountable for Ohio’s opioid crisis and secure funding for addiction recovery. As governor, she has pledged to make healthcare decisions Ohio Physicians based on science, launch an Ohio Rx platform using the state’s purchasing power to lower drug costs for all Ohioans and protect the Medicaid and Medicare programs our patients rely on,” it continues.
Among the purported 1,021 signers are several abortionists and individuals with a history of political activism.
The name of Dr. David Burkons appears as signer 64. Burkons has been in the media many times for his job as an abortionist, even allowing a local media outlet to sit in on one of his abortions in 2023.
Dr. Catherine Romanos, who appears as signer 859 on the letter, spoke to Vice in 2022 as an Ohio family doctor who performs abortions. Romanos was featured in a 2024 Ohio Democrats press release opposing Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) over his pro-life policy positions before he was elected.
Signer 800 appears as Dr. Ashley Brant, whom the Cleveland Clinic identified as a complex family-planning specialist. She is quoted discussing abortions for maternal medical conditions and for babies with serious fetal abnormalities.
“The number of abortion cases we do each year is relatively small,” Brant said in 2023. “But these families are faced with making time-sensitive, unimaginable decisions, so it feels like the most important thing I do. We can help them get the care that they need quickly.”
Democratic state Rep. Anita Somani, a Columbus-area OGYN, OSMA member, and former Planned Parenthood board member, also signed the letter.
“It’s not that we’re rejecting the OSMA. It’s that we’re saying the political arm of the OSMA doesn’t represent all physicians in Ohio,” Somani told Signal.
Several other doctors who signed the letter appear to perform sex change surgeries.
Dr. Haruko Okada, who appears as signer 57 with a specialty in plastic surgery, is identified as a provider of sex change surgeries at OhioHealth in a 2021 medical guide.
Signer 440 appears as Dr. Daniel Medalie, whose profile on the American Society of Plastic Surgeon profile lists sex change surgeries among his services.
Dr. Christopher McClung, who appears as Signer 307 and as signer 966 as Chris McClung, both with specialties in urology, is described by Reconstructive Surgical Arts as a board-certified urologist specializing in “gender-affirming” bottom surgery. It lists procedures including vaginoplasty, vulvaplasty, metoidioplasty, and orchiectomy. OhioHealth separately reported that he had performed close to 150 bottom surgeries by 2021.
Dr. Lauren Beene, an East Cleveland pediatrician who is leading the Doctors for Dr. Amy Acton effort, told Statehouse News Bureau the doctors who signed “all believe very strongly that… Acton is a far better candidate.”
“We are concerned the election of Vivek Ramaswamy as governor would be detrimental to our patients’ ability to access healthcare,” Beene said. “Vivek Ramaswamy has said that Medicare and Medicaid are a mistake.”
Beene told Breitbart News on Tuesday that the letter was organized by a group of Ohio physicians after OSMAPAC made its endorsement. She said signatures were collected through an online form circulated among physicians “who submitted their own names and credentials,” noting they “relied on information submitted by signers.”
She said McClung’s name appearing twice was a “duplicate entry.” When asked if any of the above-mentioned doctors would be willing to confirm their background or comment on their reasons for signing the letter, Beene said she was “not able to speak to individual signers’ reasons for adding their names beyond their decision to sign.”
Breitbart News also asked if she considers the physicians who signed the letter representative of the broader medical community in Ohio or if they are mostly physicians who share views on particular issues like abortion and transgender surgeries.
“More than 1,000 physicians across a wide range of specialties and backgrounds signed the letter,” she replied. “This wasn’t a scientific survey, so I can’t speak to how that compares statistically to the broader population of Ohio physicians, but the letter was open to anyone who supported its message, regardless of their views on other issues.”
Beene said the Acton campaign was not involved in the letter, although the group “informed the campaign of the effort as a courtesy” once they had gathered enough signatures.
Per the Statehouse News report, the Cleveland-based University Hospitals fired Beene in 2025 for accessing and using an internal directory for an effort to unionize. Beene said she believes the effort was legal, and she, along with fellow terminated Dr. Fout-Fowler, have filed a lawsuit against the hospital for defamation and wrongful termination.
Acton was pictured with both doctors last year and praised the pair on social media for “standing up for workers, for reproductive rights, and for physicians in our state.”
Beene was also the executive director of Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights, a coalition that put a measure on the 2023 ballot to enshrine the right to abortion in the Ohio constitution. The measure, called Issue 1, passed 56.6 percent to 43.4 percent.
OSMA is the largest and oldest statewide physician-led trade organization in Ohio and represents nearly 16,000 physicians, residents, and medical students in the state on issues including state and federal legislation and regulatory affairs.
OSMA President Dr. Gary Katz put out a statement saying the organization’s PAC has independent authority to make endorsement decisions and noted that OSMA physicians “hold a broad range of personal and professional perspectives about the current state of healthcare and the policies that can best improve it.”
“We share many of the same concerns about the challenges facing our patients and our profession; however, as the state’s largest physician association, representing medical doctors from all practice settings and specialties, we may differ in our opinions about the appropriate roles of government, markets, insurers, employers, and healthcare institutions,” he wrote.
“Those differences are a valuable asset to us in our advocacy, and as we endeavor to respect the diverse perspectives of our members, it is critical that we also remain focused on the principles that unite all physicians across political perspectives: protecting the patient-physician relationship, maintaining the highest standards of care, making Ohio a place where physicians want to train and practice, and ensuring that physicians can make medical decisions based upon the needs of their patients,” he continued.
Katz said he had the opportunity to meet with Ramaswamy and his wife Dr. Apoorva Ramaswamy, who is a throat surgeon at a cancer hospital in Columbus, “for a substantive discussion about healthcare in Ohio.”
“I was pleased to hear his support for several of these uniting principles and to discuss how they might inform healthcare policy in our state,” he said.
OSMAPAC Chair Dr. Anne Taylor said Ramaswamy “has a clear vision to improve healthcare across our state, and it’s clear that he understands the challenges physicians face including preserving physician-led healthcare, strengthening the physician pipeline, and removing administrative barriers to practicing medicine.”
“OSMAPAC’s endorsement decision reflects our confidence that Vivek will work with Ohio’s doctors to improve health outcomes and ensure patients have access to high-quality care,” Taylor said in a press release.
Breitbart News reached out to OSMA for further comment about its endorsement decision but did not receive a response by time of publication.
When Signal Ohio asked Acton about the Ramaswamy endorsement last week, she pivoted and criticized President Donald Trump’s spending bill that is expected to cut Medicaid funding to Ohio by $33 billion over ten years.
“My opponent, Mr. Ramaswamy, has said Medicaid and Medicare are mistakes, as rural hospitals right near here are collapsing. This is a crisis,” Acton said.
She also reportedly touted the support of “thousands” of individual doctors, as well as endorsements from the Ohio Nurses Association, which is a major union.
Breitbart News reached out to the Acton campaign for comment about the endorsement and the letter but did not receive a response by time of publication.
Ramaswamy said in a statement that he is “incredibly honored to have the support of the OSMAPAC” and that the PAC’s support “speaks volumes in this particular race.”
“My wife is a surgeon, and I understand all that goes into caring for patients. Ohio’s doctors need a governor who listens to them, gets unnecessary bureaucracy out of their way, and gives them the tools they need to provide exceptional care to patients across our state. That’s exactly what I’ll do starting in January,” he said.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
